Shift in loop current may keep Florida Keys safe from spill

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"A dramatic change in the Gulf of Mexico's loop current has trapped a slick of oil in a huge circular eddy that scientists said Thursday appears likely to push slowly west instead of pumping the oil south into the Florida Keys.

The shift, which oceanographers have been watching strengthen for a week, has at the least reduced the imminent environmental threat for Florida. Tar balls predicted to be floating in the Florida Straits by now instead might not arrive for weeks, months or — depending on lots of variables — maybe at all.

"I don't think there is an express lane here any more," said Nick Shay, a physical oceanographer at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

But he and other scientists caution they are still struggling to assess another unseen but potentially catastrophic threat — plumes of submerged oil from the April 20 deep sea blowout that the federal government finally confirmed has become the nation's largest oil spill."

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Related thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=8429377

[aquart]

1. Which means where? Who's next?

It says bad news for Texas and Mexico. Then talks of making its way up the east coast. What about the Bahamas? Cuba? Puerto Rico? Long Island? Manhattan? When do the rest of us get to sicken from the smell and watch our birds die?